Webcomics

Warren Ellis says: “From 1941, when the drugs were apparently very good: Mr. E appealed for guidance and assistance to a statue of a ancient tribal god named King Kolah which he housed in a subterranean temple beneath his home. Kolah presented Mr. E with visions that led him to criminals. The idol also gave Mr. E the assistance of his elven messengers. The messengers were small gnome-like creatures who could shapeshift into a variety of creatures and wreaked mischief against Mr. E’s enemies. One of the messengers was named Butch. Mr. E used his visions and assistant gnomes to fight crime in Washington DC. Mr. E dated a girl named Miss Terry.

Me: To explain a bit, I thought from the beginning of some African or Oceanic tribemen, but I needed a connection to Washington; Native American tribes became obvious; I then looked for the best fitting tribe (geographic location, patriarcal and with data available regarding mythology and language). In short, Mister E is an Abenaki, and all the mentionned characters are really part of the Abenaki folklore. Except Butch, who might be coming from another story…

Warren Ellis says: “from 1939, probably the 100th Mandrake knock-off in comics. I use this one because I found his list of villains utterly surreal, worthy of Steve Aylett at times:
John Cardy also known as Kardak the Mystic traveled the world fighting crime using his magic powers. He fought villains such as the Mocha Men, the Brahmins, the Great Rexa, the Transparent People, the Beast-Men, the Ice People, and Kid Boppo.
I do not add a picture because, well, there’s really nothing there, so you may as well imagine it for yourself…

Me: I just thinks this calls only for madness and delusions. I just wanted to put all the characters in the same place.

Warren Ellis says: “From Jess Nevins, another very short one that should be fun. It’s not immediately clear, so let me state up front: Gerry Carlyle is a woman.

Carlyle, Gerry. Gerry Carlyle was created by Arthur K. Barnes and appeared in a series of stories in Thrilling Wonder Stories from 1937-1946, several of which were collected in Interplanetary Hunter (1956). Gerry Carlyle is the beautiful and fabulous galactic big game hunter, a sort of Frank Buck Rogers, who works for the London Interplanetary Zoo, capturing dangerous alien beasts on far distant and often dangerous alien worlds, and bringing the BEMs back to the Zoo. In this Gerry is assisted by her bold and rather clever sidekick Tommy Strike, with whom Gerry has a love/hate relationship.

So the key writing was to have fun with the Future, and the various alien species.

Warren Ellis says: “Now, this is the Nedor comics character from 1940, not the famous pulp sf character. There are one or two pictures of this guy online, but I choose not to show them to you. Instead, revel in the description:

Scientist Andrew Bryant was experimenting with gamma and infrared rays and discovered that, by crossing them, he gained superpowers. He uses these abilities to fight crime with the help of his girlfriend, Detective Grace Adams (of the Agatha Detective Agency). Captain Future can fly, hurl energy bolts from his hands, and has super strength. But strong blows to the head can render him unconscious, and he must frequently use his machine to recharge his powers. I like that last bit. ”

Ok, this one is really insane: From Contact Comics in 1944: Warren Ellis says: “Colonel Moore Williams knows the enemy is easily terrified by the strange and unknown, so he becomes the superhero known as the Flamingo! He has no powers and is only armed with his intellect, his physical strength, his service revolver, and a specially built plane. He uses his new identity to accomplish things the military cannot.”

The story and story board were originally done in under 3 hours, for the five pages. It took me much longer to properly onk, colour and letter the whole thing. But there you go.

And a few weeks later, a new thread:

A sequel to the Flamingo: Warren Ellis says: “Okay, this one has the potential for some crazy. Also, if anyone’s in the mood to draw insane vehicles, now’s your shot…

As Skywolf, Larry Wolfe wore a white wolf pelt into battle and headed a three-man flier team. Members of the team include Cocky Roche, who was a cockney, and the Judge, an old Englishman turned down by the R.A.F. because of his age. The last member was “The Turtle,” A Polish mute whose tongue was cut out by Germans and who communicated by tapping on his own head in Morse Code. The group flew special planes that split in half to become separate vehicles. In fact, Skywolf and his team were such an effective group of Nazi fighters that Adolf Hitler himself was desperate to get rid of them to the point of actually participating in a plan to capture them. Skywolf teamed up with Airboy and battled the monstrous Heap during the course of his adventures.

Si Spurrier says:
It’s not all euphemistic smut-adventurers and bee-fancying spandexers on Whitechapel, oh no. You’ll recall I launched my stewardship here with a chance to reinvent the Egyptian War-Goddess Sekhmet – as a pissheaded psychopath, naturally – and verily It Was Good. So. Let’s try some more of that sort of thing. ”Jenny Greenteeth is a figure in English folklore. A river hag, she would pull children or the elderly into the water and drown them. She was often described as green-skinned, with long hair, and sharp teeth. She is likely to have been an invention to frighten children from dangerous waters similar to the Slavic Rusalka, the Kappa in Japanese mythology, or Australia’s Bunyip, but other folklorists have seen her as a memory of sacrificial practices.” So: an aquatic psycho-slag to frighten kiddies, drown geriatrics and delight RPG players the world over. But hark! This is Remake/Remodel! This isn’t just a chance for you to get your Creep On and draw an old faerie gribblie, oh-ho-no.
You will update. You will recontextualise. You will use your tasty brainbits as well as your scribbledy pens of power.
Bethunk as follows: how does a slime-titted water-devil fit into whatever passes for contemporary folklore? Is she the same old hag of yesteryear, now living a 21st century life? Is she keeping herself to herself, or using her unique skills (of, um, drowning children) to get by? Has she found a new niche, as a Modern Monster?
Maybe you fancy spandexizing the poor fiend and turning her into a heroine or villainess. Maybe “Jenny Greenteeth” is a tabloid nickname for a murderer, or a filename for a sentient techbug, or an experimental superweapon, or whatthefuckever.
Be Thou Interesting.

A long time ago, Warren Ellis posted a remake/remodel thread on a Ghost Exterminator: The theme said: “The Ghost Exterminator was created by Gelett Burgess and appeared in Cosmopolitan and possibly a few other magazines from 1904 through 1906.
The Exterminator is Hoku Tamanochi, a Japanese San Franciscan who uses an ancient Japanese formula and his family’s traditional skills to exorcise the ghosts of San Francisco. Hoku sprays the ghosts with an ancient Japanese powder when he finds them; this turns them semi-solid, and he then uses a bellows to capture them. He then seals them in bottles, thus permanently trapping them.
Hoku is (unwillingly, at first) teamed up with the nameless narrator, who is Hoku’s friend. The narrator analyzes the powder and creates a special compound of his own that does the same thing. He then begins stealing Hoku’s business (some friend, eh?) and making an additional profit by selling the ghosts, which he can reconstitute with the help of radium. The narrator eventually fumbles things and Hoku is forced to save him. The Exterminator stories follow this pattern: the narrator gets greedy and is initially successful in using Hoku’s ideas and methods, but eventually something goes wrong and Hoku is forced to ride in at the last minute and save the day.”

So it took me a while and a bit of research on Japanese History and culture, since I didn’t want to mix facts and dates. For this story, I wanted to use another aspect of webcomics, the scroll down reading.